It is with great honor that we announce LCBH Co-founder and lifelong housing advocate, David Orr, will take home the 2025 Barbara Grau Outstanding Housing Advocate Award at LCBH’s Fall Benefit on October 9th at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Purchase your tickets to the celebration here.
In 1980, recently elected 49th Ward Alderman, David Orr, organized a group of 10 volunteer attorneys to survey and report on rampant conditions issues in 10 apartment buildings in Rogers Park. It was through their work and friendships that the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, now known as the Law Center for Better Housing, was born.
“The biggest issue we faced at that time was housing. The condo movement was sweeping through Rogers Park and Edgewater, rent prices were rising, and absentee landlords were neglecting to make their units safe and habitable,” David Orr said.
The attorneys were tasked with meeting with renters in each problem building, assessing their conditions issues, and demanding repairs. In some cases, the attorneys would take the complaints to court, forcing non-compliant landlords to remedy the issues and improve housing conditions for their tenants. At other times, attorneys would help advocate for the preservation of vacant buildings, demanding that they be fixed and made available for renters rather than demolished.
“We had a lot of big buildings with bad landlords, and no one to represent them. We’d go to court, and sometimes, I swear, the bailiffs were taking money from the hot shot attorneys that represented the slumlords. So, we said, ‘Listen, we need attorneys.’ We had organized some people, and it would be helpful if you brought neighbors to complain about a building, but we needed people to actually represent the buildings,” David said.
Under David’s leadership, LCBH continued to grow and received its first grant through the Amoco Foundation, hiring our first Executive Director, Jack Kaplan, and Staff Attorney, Barbara Grau, for whom this award was named.
LCBH’s team partnered with neighborhood groups like the Rogers Park Tenants Council and the Metropolitan Tenants Organization to battle the corruption and inefficiencies of housing court, uncovering systemic inequities and advocating for new policies that advanced renters’ rights. In one significant victory, David mobilized grassroots support and government leaders to write and pass the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance, or Tenant’s Bill of Rights, which gave tenants new tools to use against landlords who weren’t maintaining their properties, David said.
LCBH’s attorneys still use this legislation as the basis for their work protecting tenants, not just in Rogers Park but throughout Chicago and Suburban Cook County.
Outside of LCBH, David’s passion for housing extended to his political career where he championed housing justice in multiple roles, including seven terms as Cook County Clerk before retiring in 2018. Today, David plays a significant role in the continued vitality of the organization, including his service on the LCBH Advocates Council, where he gives advice on funding opportunities, organizational development and growth, and political advocacy.
We are proud to recognize the steadfast support David has shown to LCBH for more than four decades and reaffirm our commitment to his vision through this award. We hope you will celebrate David with us on October 9th, 2025, at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Meet our other award winners and secure your tickets here.